Time Apart
by Skeleton's Dance
Summary: When Sakura asks for a divorce Sasuke has no choice but to abide her wishes. But how will they get through their time apart when they both still love the other? When the lack of communication caused their marriage to fail how will they set things right again? SasuSaku M for language. Pilot, will continue if there's enough support.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N I obviously do not own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**This was just an idea that popped up in my head a while ago, I'm not sure whether I'll continue the story or not. I do have some ideas for it. Don't expect me to post much until summertime, I have to write my thesis and I'm already far behind as it is. I'm grabbing onto anything distracting I can find ;), even though I know I shouldn't.**

**Let me know what you think and whether you want me to continue it.**

**Time apart – Chapter 1**

"… I want a divorce…"

Her quiet statement was only met with silence. He didn't say anything; he didn't even react. His face didn't show any emotion as she had hoped it would. At least then she would be able to know how he was feeling.

How could she be married to a guy that couldn't even muster up a reaction to her wanting to end their relationship?

"…You're hardly ever here, you always have to work. I never get to see you. And then when you're here you hardly ever talk. You don't ever tell me what you're thinking. You don't even show me what you're feeling. I just feel we're drifting apart"

She continued talking hoping to finally get a reaction from her husband of three years. But even after everything she had said to explain her decision he didn't react, she took a shaky breath, deciding to keep quiet now until he decided to speak. It wasn't that she didn't love him anymore. She couldn't imagine sharing her life with anyone else right at that moment, but she also knew that she couldn't keep lying to herself, or to him.

The truth was she had been unfaithful; a while back, after she had received a call from him that he would once again miss their date night, her friend Ino had taken her out for a night in the town.

Ino had forced her in a sexy figure hugging dress that showed off all her best assets, just to show her that it wasn't her lack of charm that had caused her husband to lose his interest in her.

There had been lots of alcohol and lots of swearing on Ino's part: "Who the hell does Uchiha fucking Sasuke think he is!?" followed by: "It's crazy that you need a fucking appointment to date your fucking husband!" And other profanities that Sakura would not dare to repeat out loud.

It was also Ino who had encouraged the very drunk pinkette to dance with that stranger who had bought her drinks.

She didn't need to explain how that night ended, just that she woke up very hung-over, naked in the stranger's bed. After that she made her way out as soon as she could only to get home to an empty house.

That night was two weeks ago, and it had almost given her some hope that she and Sasuke would be alright, since the next evening the two of them had sex again for the first time in months.

It had been passionate almost as it had been after they had just gotten married, but they had only just finished when Sasuke had gotten up and dressed to return to work.

It had been minutes since either of them had spoken; Sasuke had still not reacted to her request of a divorce.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

Tears were stinging in her eyes, as she stared at the man she loved so much. He had always had difficulty expressing how he felt, but when he proposed to her she had been certain he would at least show his feelings to her.

And he had… for a while…

But something changed and she had no idea what it was. One day they just started drifting apart.

"… I slept with someone else." She finally whispered.

"I cheated on you." She added hoping to stir up some emotional reaction from him.

…

Nothing…

Tears were silently streaming down her face now. She didn't know what to do anymore. What to say to make him finally react. She didn't want things to end, she wanted him to fight for her.

For things to turn back to the way they used to be. Sakura took a deep breath, finally looking away from her husband. Who was still just stood there looking at her, his face void of emotion.

A soft sob escaped her lips: "Damnit, Sasuke, say something! Aren't you going to fight for me?"

Finally his mouth opened and he finally spoke:

"What do you want me to say? You already seem to have made up your mind."

She held her breath for a moment, her tears streaming down her cheeks faster now.

"So you're going to give up just like that?"

"It doesn't seem like you've given me much of a choice. You're already asking for a divorce. And you decided to sleep with someone else. There's not much I can change about that."

He was silent for a while, before he added:

"I'll pack my things, you can keep the house."

As he walked out and made his way upstairs she let herself fall back on the couch, she buried her hands in her hair leaning on her elbows as she cried.

"… Sasuke…" She mumbled, knowing fully well that he wasn't going to hear her.

It wasn't long before she took a deep breath and dried her eyes. She knew she shouldn't cry, this was her decision and it was for the best. She still loved him and if he loved her things would be all right in the end.

But if he didn't… She sighed, fighting the tears once more, for she realized that if he didn't she had no right of keeping him here. She wanted him to be happy as well, she could force him to change his habits make him come home more often, but that wouldn't make him happy and she couldn't be happy knowing he was miserable.

She walked to the kitchen grabbing a glass of wine, after pulling her long hair from her face by putting it in a high sloppy bun. When had her perfect life taken such a wrong turn? Where had it all gone wrong?

After a few sips of wine Sakura walked upstairs to their bedroom.

Upstairs Sasuke was packing up his things, even though he wasn't showing it on the outside, on the inside he was screaming out that this wasn't how it was supposed to go.

He knew they had grown apart; he was there to witness it. And he also knew he was what caused it. It had been little over a year ago when people started pestering them about children. And quite frankly it had him freaking out.

He hadn't been ready for kids he was 25, he had only just finished college, and was starting out in his new job. He wanted to get their life in order before starting a family.

So when Sakura brought up the whole baby thing, after her mother had gone on and on about it, he had freaked out. He had pulled his walls back up; he had sought his distance.

And he got it, a little too much of it, honestly. Sasuke took a deep breath and sighed. He had hurt her by it, the woman he loved…

The only woman he could ever love…

He heard her footsteps outside the room and he heard her stop in the doorway.

"You shouldn't be the one moving out, you wanted this house…" She said.

"I wanted it for us… For our future family" He continued packing his bag.

"No, Sasuke, it wouldn't feel right to me if you had to find a new place. I'm serious. You worked so hard for this. I'll find my own place, it would do me good a new environment and everything…"

He turned to her, he could still see she had been crying, and he was to blame for those tears. He knew she wouldn't have cheated on him had he been there with her more often.

He could see in those beautiful jade eyes of her that she did still love him deeply and he could also see that she meant what she was saying. She didn't want to stay in this house after what happened here.

"Right, of course… You have somewhere to go tonight?"

She smiled half heartedly, walking up to him, she softly stroked through his hair.

"I can stay with Ino until I found a new place."

Tears were actually starting to form in his eyes, blurring his sight. He kissed her forehead softly.

"Please don't go, I can change…" He muttered.

He saw how she bit her bottom lip, she seemed to be pondering whether she could give that a go. But she shook her head.

"We need some time apart, too much has happened."

She started switching his clothes in the bag for her own, and soon she was all packed up and ready to go. He walked her to the door when she was ready helping her load her things in the back of her car

"Right… I guess I'll be going then… D-Don't be a stranger okay… I do still love you." She said as she kissed his cheek softly.

She quickly stepped in the car and drove off, before he could even respond. Watching her drive down the street he muttered:

"I love you too"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N I obviously do not own Naruto or any of its characters.**

**The amount of reactions I received from the first chapter of this story intrigued me to say the least. It seems I struck a nerve with my idea of having Sakura cheat on Sasuke. Let me tell you this, I do not say Sakura made the right decision sleeping with someone else, and I do think cheating is wrong but I'm also a realist in thinking that people aren't perfect. People make mistakes, and people have things they regret. And I don't think that the one who cheated is always the 'bad guy' in the story.**

**I tried to show that Sakura's mistake of cheating was at least partially caused by Sasuke's neglect of her, that does not mean that Sakura didn't make a mistake. I think that in a mature relationship people are capable of working through their issues together, through communications, without immediately trying to blame one or the other. They both made mistakes in my plot and they'll both have to work to make it up to the other. **

**Things will be further explained in this chapter.**

**I hope this does clear some things up for you guys, and I hope you see that this extreme amount of interest you guys have shown has brought me to immediately want to continue on this. (I write this the day after the first chapter was posted.) So thanks you guys, I love the thought you put behind reading and reviewing this chapter. **

**Time Apart – Chapter 2**

"That jerk how the fuck dare he kick you out of the house! He neglected you first, it was his neglect that drove you away!"

"Ino, stop it, I said he could keep the house, he offered to leave first… Besides I made mistakes as well."

"He was barely home anyways, so what the fuck would he do with such a house anyways!? The jackass, I can't believe the guy!"

"Ino... SHUT UP!"

Sakura panted slightly from shouting at her friend like that. The reaction might seem a little extreme. but she had been at Ino's place for three days and all she ever heard from her best friend were things to bring her soon to be ex-husband down.

She knew Ino was just trying to make her feel good, doing her 'job' as her best friend of hating the ex and just telling her what was wrong with him. But to be completely honest, her list of negatives of herself was longer than her list of him.

She spent hours in the shower hoping to rinse those strangers touches off of her, but she could feel his hands on her and it made her feel sick to her stomach.

She finally turned to look at her blond haired friend, the look on her face said it all: she wanted an explanation for her sudden outburst.

"You don't need to hate Sasuke… I don't hate him… I still wish we'd be able to work through this together. Work things out, something happened that drove him away from me and to his job, and I want to find out what that is."

Tears were starting to form in her eyes again, she didn't want to start crying again, she had done enough of that, things needed to get done. She had found an apartment the day before, the papers were signed and in two days she'd be able to move in.

So she still needed to order furniture so that would be delivered in time, she needed to figure out what colour she wanted to paint the room. And she needed to get it all done soon since she only had a week left to settle in before she had to get back to work.

"I still love him, and I just hope that he can forgive me for what I've done to him."

Ino sighed: "Stop beating yourself up, you've been doing that ever since it happened…"

The blond stroked a strand of pink hair out of her friends face and behind her ear and said:

"I'm sorry I spurred you on that night. We all make mistakes, and that was one of mine. Come on. Let's get you some furniture before you have to sleep on the floor for weeks."

Sakura and Ino spend the whole day picking out furniture, paint colours , curtains and everything. And even though Sakura knew her moving to the new apartment was imminent she had a hard time committing herself to it. It made the divorce feel so final while the papers weren't even drawn up yet.

How could she decide what colour her bedroom walls should be when all she wanted to do was sleep between the four walls of her old bedroom, her actual bedroom?

In the end Ino finally forced Sakura to make a decision and order everything she needed to have it delivered to her new apartment on the day she'd have to move in.

When they came home after a late dinner Sakura fell down on the couch that functioned as her bed as long as she'd stay with Ino. She felt both physically and mentally drained at the moment and all she wanted to do was sleep until all of this was over.

It was one pm by now, and Sasuke was still lying in bed. He usually wasn't one to sleep in. He was usually up quite early, but ever since Sakura had packed her things and left he just couldn't find the energy to get up at the usual hour.

But right now his peace was disturbed by the constant ringing of his doorbell. It could only mean one thing: Naruto was here to disrupt his day. He wasn't surprised the blonde had showed up, he had been working from home for three days ever since he was alone. It was just that he had hoped to be able to mope in silence for just a few more days.

Naruto being here meant he would have to do something, take action. And he just wasn't ready for that yet. He knew Naruto would try to patch things up between the two of them, Naruto loved that his two best friends were together and Sasuke was sure that his knucklehead of a friend was heartbroken when he heard things weren't going well for the couple.

Sasuke was just about to get up to let Naruto in when he heard footsteps coming up the stairs. So the dobe had found out that the kitchen door had been left unlocked…

Sasuke sat up, rubbing his hand through his hair to make himself a little more presentable. He had been wearing pyjama bottoms, so no worries in that area, but Sasuke did start to wonder whether the whole situation had taken it's toll one his body.

It had only been three days, but in those three days he had barely slept, even though he had spend a lot of time in bed. He had trouble getting his food down, he had to force himself to eat.

"TEME!" Naruto shouted as he barged into the room. He leaped onto the bed taking his raven-haired friend into a headlock.

"I warned you about your behaviour with Sakura-chan! I told you she'd stop waiting for you one day" 

When Naruto found that Sasuke didn't struggle against his grip, as he usually would, he let go of his head. He looked as if his eyes would roll out of his head soon.

"You're as bummed as she is!"

"Of course I'm bummed, dobe! My wife wants a divorce." Sasuke replied, but now actually considering what his friend had said he asked:

"She's really that upset?"

Naruto stared at him incredulously. Sasuke didn't understand what had been so weird about what he had just said.

"Of course she's upset, man. She loves you, she's crazy about you, has been ever since we all went to school together. That never changed."

"It changed enough that she'd sleep with someone else." Sasuke buried one of his hands in his hair, messing it up even further.

"Fuck, man, I really screwed up, haven't I?" he asked his blonde friend while looking up at him. Everything was just so confusing right now. Why couldn't things go back to the way they were, before his wife slept with someone else, but also before he had to go all paranoid.

Naruto shrugged: "You both did… The question you need to ask yourself is whether you can get over her cheating on you… Oh and can you be all lovey-dovey with her again, instead of ignoring her?"

Sasuke stared at his hands that were lying in his lap. He had to get used to his idiot friend actually making sense. His fiancé's gentle behaviour, and more importantly her rational thinking, was really rubbing off on him.

"I'll have to… Even though I'm not sure if I can. It's not a situation in which we can simply kiss and make up."

"I still can't get over the fact that she cheated… On you! I mean she spent so long trying to get you to notice her and then when she's finally got you…"

"It didn't turn out the way she expected it to be…"

They were both silent for a while before Naruto decided to break the silence:

"Well man come on you've got to take a shower and go out, we'll have lunch or something, you really need to go out into the open again."

Sasuke knew it was no use trying to argue with the blond so he got up reluctantly and dragged himself to the shower. The rest of the day they spend out and about, going for a long lunch (or in Sasuke's case a very late breakfast) and going to the gym for a much needed workout.

It wasn't until dinnertime that Sasuke realized that he still had some paperwork to do before tomorrow. But even though the paperwork had momentarily slipped his mind, his pink-haired was still centre stage in his thoughts. Sasuke had to commend Naruto for his efforts, but it seemed he could not be distracted from the matters at hand.

**A/N so the final bits and pieces and revision took me a little longer. I'm still not fully satisfied since this chapter seems really filler-ish. Which it sort of is, on top of it being very short. I'm not really sure how to continue.. I do have some ideas, but it just feels too rushed to incorporate them now. But well we'll see…**


End file.
